New Delhi: Leading footwear major Bata India will bring in new global product lines “as early as possible” at its stores, with a focus on sneakers and youth-relevant ranges, as it works towards doubling its India turnover by 2030, said its new Managing Director and CEO, Sanjay Rao.Addressing his first earnings call after taking charge, Rao said the company’s ambition remains to double turnover, implying a mid-single-digit to double-digit CAGR over the next four years under the ‘Reignite India 2030‘ strategy.The company is working on a detailed year-by-year roadmap to achieve the revenue target.“Our ambition is to double India (turnover) by 2030. So we are working on a detailed year-by-year plan. But the ambition remains that we would like to double turnover, which obviously means that in terms of CAGR rate, we are looking at mid-single-digit to double-digit growth rate across the next four years,” Rao said.Bata India‘s revenue in FY26 was Rs 3,515.48 crore.He also said the company aims to more than double its profits by 2030, while improving its growth trajectory through various business initiatives.While replying to a query, its CFO Amit Aggarwal said: “Historically, our CAGRs are low; there is growth momentum and quarter-on-quarter, we are trying to improve the tally from the previous quarter.”Bata India logged 7.5 per cent growth in the September quarter, and it has grown over the last three quarters, he said.”So all the actions are in the direction of growing the top line in adisproportionate manner. Endeavour is to hit the mid-teens…. what the global direction is also given the potential of the Indian market,” said Aggarwal during the company’s Q2 FY27 earnings call last week.As per its strategy, Bata India will maintain sustainable and profitable growth by “at least” doubling it.”Our internal thinking is that we will continue for more than the double-digit — doubling in India and doubling the profits as well. We are looking at something higher than that so that we can continue to fund the investments and growth that we have,” said Rao.The company is also looking to strengthen its connection with younger consumers, particularly Gen Z, by renewing its focus on sneakers and casual footwear.Admitting that Bata had missed the sneakerisation trend, Rao said the company was now doubling down on the category, with Bata and Hush Puppies being the two key brands in which it sees “significant traction”.”… we didn’t really have the product line to go to the consumer. So it was not that we put the products in place and the consumer refused to buy. As nimbler players entered the market, and as the world moved toward the sneakerization trend, we didn’t move in an agile way. So that is what we need to overcome there…,” he said.The company is also planning to introduce newer global product lines in India, although it did not specify a launch timeline.”… my priority is also to make sure that we bring in the global product lines into the store as early as possible,” he said.Though Rao did not share any timeline but said those new products, which are from other geographical regions, are coming in. “I would not like to give a date on when they would arrive, but this is something which is in the works.”He further said he is very confident that as these products hit the stores, they should be able to take off in a much stronger and more robust manner.On retail expansion, Bata is prioritising franchisee-led growth while selectively evaluating opportunities to open company-owned stores.
